All Alone in the Dark
by lrhaboggle
Summary: Contrary to popular belief, Perry didn't spend every second of possession all alone in the dark. Sometimes she was very much awake and in those moments, she fought with the strength and determination that would scare even a vampire... or a goddess... which ever her attacker was.


These blackouts were becoming more frequent. Although Perry had no idea what they were and why they kept happening, she knew that it was a very bad sign. She had just woken up to find herself standing in the middle of the dean's little library that was on the far side of her suite. The ginger looked around herself in confusion. Although the memory was shady at best, the girl seemed to recall being at the dinner table last, yet now she was standing right in the middle of stacks upon stacks of paper. In addition, though she couldn't confirm it yet, the girl was 100% certain that this wasn't even the same day as that dinner had been. What was going on? She really did want to ask for help but, at the same time, she wasn't sure she would be able to handle more bad news. She also didn't want to worry her friends. As if they didn't have enough to worry about.

"It's probably just stress!" Perry decided, talking to herself in a chipper voice to keep herself calm. "After all, it's not every day a college campus is at war with itself! Maybe I just need to lie down for awhile. I haven't been right since we came back and I found all those journalist students dead!" she clapped but then her words sank in and her face switched over from happy to horrified. "Since I found those students, those poor, poor students, dead…" her shoulders slumped and she looked around the stacks, suddenly feeling very lost and all alone in the dark despite it being broad daylight. Something very wrong was going on here. Something more than a simple illness. But Perry wasn't going to say a word…

Perry's refusal to get help would be her own undoing. Eventually, she figured it out. Somehow, she knew that some evil spirit was taking over her body. By then, though, it was too late. Even though she was able to retain her mind, at least for a little while, her body was gone. It was a terrifying experience that felt so wrong and dirty and violating, but it was literally out of her hands now. Her hands were being controlled by another and it was too late for her to get help. Instead, she could only listen helplessly as this unknown spirit tried to torture her mind into submission. It was doing a very good job too, playing all kinds of mind games with her…

"Leave them be!" Perry screamed at the spirit one night. She was all alone in the dark, hiding just outside of the suite so that she could be alone without being in too much danger. There were still aggressive factions roaming the campus even though it was nearly midnight.

"No," the spirit taunted. "I'll do whatever I please with them! With _all_ of them. Especially that little weirdo of yours. Lafontaine, was it?"

"Hey! They're no weirdo! They're my best friend!" Perry snarled back. Then a wave of pain and nausea struck Perry and the poor girl fell to her knees, one hand clutching at her head while the other clutched at her stomach.

"Good girl," the spirit hummed as she fell. "You really should know that your days are over and your life belongs to me!"

"Yeah right!" Perry moaned bravely despite the pain and fear she was enduring.

"My, what bravado," the spirit cooed. "Here I thought you were the weak, boring girl of the group!"

"Shut up!" Perry responded. "I'm not! And even if I am, I am still stronger than _you_!"

"Say that if you wish, it still shouldn't be too hard to break you," the spirit decided. "After all, I only need your precious Lafontaine…"

"You won't hurt them!" Perry snarled back. She even managed to punch her own face once to get the point across, though she didn't appear to harm her unseen attacker. Instead, she only succeeded in giving herself a slight bruise.

"Oh, won't I?" the spirit teased. That was about when Perry tried to punch it. "Ha! Stupid girl! You think just because I possess your body that one measly punch will do me in? How about I show you what a real fight with someone like me is like?!" it snarled, then the agony Perry was already feeling increased tenfold. Suddenly, then, Perry was all alone in the dark again and she remained there for the rest of the semester.

For that semester, Perry felt strange. Being possessed wasn't just like being alone in the dark. Instead, it was far more surreal. It was more disjointed and limbo-like. She felt as though she were floating in some black pool despite being upright. Or at least, she assumed she was upright. It was kind of hard to tell. All of her other senses, though they worked, felt numb. It was like whenever she got a tooth filled and had to get her gums numbed. She could still feel her mouth and she could feel it move, however buzzy the sensation was, but it was not like the way her mouth normally felt. That was what this possession felt like. She was all alone in the dark but it was unlike any dark she'd ever felt before and was far more like staring into an abyss and maybe even floating within it, though she never fell.

Then Perry heard it. A still small voice that was so familiar even though it felt like she hadn't heard it in years…

"I'm sorry if I treated you like wanting things to be nice was small…" the voice said. But who was it? Perry's gears turned.

"You're the biggest thing in my world…" it said. Then suddenly, Perry realized who it was. Lafontaine! It struck Perry at once and she felt more awake than she had in a long time. She was still all alone in the dark but hearing Lafontaine's voice grounded her a little bit and even though she didn't exactly wake up, she felt more alert of her surroundings. She felt present once more and she called out to Lafontaine.

"Are you there? Can you hear me?" she pleaded. For the first time in a long time, she understood everything.

But then, Lafontaine went silent again and Perry's moment of clarity and truth went away again.

"Lafontaine! Lafontaine! Lafontaine!" Perry screamed, looking all around herself wildly. "It's Perry! I'm here! I'm stuck in here! Oh, can you hear me!? Please, Lafontaine! I'm down here! Please! Are you there?! Do you know where I am!? Can you help!?"

"I am getting you back…"

Perry continued to cry out for her best friend, but when the voice ceased altogether, she began to wail.

"No! Lafontaine, no! Please! Come back! Don't go yet! Don't leave me! Oh! Are you still there?! Don't leave me!" Perry fell to her knees and wept loudly, still crying out for Lafontaine, but as the time passed, the longer she went without hearing Lafontaine's voice, the more disconnected to reality she felt until she had returned to her regular apathy. She was left all alone in the dark once more and she slowly forgot everything…

But something had changed in her. Even though she was still very much alone in the dark, her own body no longer hers, she could think a little bit clearer now. For that, she did her best to make her possessor miserable. She would hold out until Lafontaine could rescue her and she knew for a fact that Lafontaine would come. They had promised, after all, and Lafontaine would never break a promise to her. So while Lafontaine tried to free her from the outside, Perry would do her part from now on and fight from within. She was not going to wait passively until she was rescued. She was going to fight for as long and hard as she could, even if her best efforts didn't amount to much.

"I don't know who you are!" Perry cried. "But I know that Lafontaine is coming to rescue me! You should be scared!" she said. It was a silly thing to say to such a powerful, unknown evil, but it worked for Perry and it gave her the strength to keep fighting for her beloved best friend. It gave her the strength to fight for Lafontaine. It gave her the strength to be protector Perry. So Perry continued to fight.

"You may think you've won the battle, but have you won the war?" she demanded as loudly as she could.

"That I have, foolish mortal!" her possessor finally answered back.

"Ohhh! So now you deiced to answer me? Why? Are you afraid?!" Perry taunted boldly.

"No. Just annoyed. Now I suggest you be quiet, silly girl, you wouldn't want to see me mad, would you?" the spirit asked cruelly.

"I think you are plenty mad enough already!" Perry sneered.

"Foolish brat!" the spirit replied and Perry only laughed right back.

Then it was over. The battle was won and Perry was free and Lafontaine was safe. Perry did it. Lafontaine was ok. Perry had protected them. Protector Perry had won. Despite all of her past doubts, she found the strength to fight her possessor and she actually won!

So many times had the world credited Lafontaine to being the protective one in the relationship when, in reality, it had been mutual all along. Even though Lafontaine's acts of love were more blatant, Perry's were just as real and powerful and while Lafontaine never faltered in their quest to save Perry, Perry never faltered in her quest to protect Lafontaine. Even after Perry was free, she continued to take her job as Lafontaine's hero seriously and it was the only job she loved more than being Team Mom. So yeah, Lafontaine was protective of Perry, but Perry was protective of Lafontaine and she was willing to fight any battle for them, no matter how horrific and the reward was always the same.

"I missed you, Weirdo."

"You too, Control Freak."

Perry was no longer all alone and she was no longer lost in the dark. She was with Lafontaine and she stood in the light.

 **AN: Just wanted some Laferry fluff that also delved into Perry's time under the dean. Even though it's said that victims don't remember the possession ever occurring, Perry admits that she was lost and alone in the dark, so she must've had some recollection or sentience during the whole ordeal. Either that or, like I've seen in some headcanons, the possession was so slow that Perry had time to feel herself slipping away with her last moments truly in control being that little argument between her and Inanna.**


End file.
